Uwe Rosler believes Brentford would have a better chance of causing a shock on Sunday if the FA Cup wasn’t Chelsea’s only realistic chance of silverware.

Chelsea began the season with seven trophies to aim for but that number has dwindled after failures in the Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup, Champions League, Capital One Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, while they are 11 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester United.

“A club like Chelsea have to win titles every year and that will make it even harder for us,” said Bees manager Rosler. “The FA Cup is realistically the one big trophy they can win this season.

“It would have been better for us if they were heavily involved in the Champions League and it would have been also good if they had a realistic chance in the title race.”

Rosler accepts Rafael Benitez is under pressure to win something at Stamford Bridge and, as a result, he expects Chelsea to play their strongest side at Griffin Park.

But with Brentford currently third in League One, former Manchester City striker Rosler has warned last season’s Champions League winners not to take victory for granted.

He said: “There is an element of underestimating us because that is a human reaction when you are playing as the European champions against a third-tier team. You cannot help yourself, you will underestimate Brentford and we have to capitalise on that.”

Benitez has been given a tough time by Chelsea supporters since his appointment as interim manager in November and Rosler sympathises with his opposite number.

The German was at Stamford Bridge last weekend for Chelsea’s 2-1 victory against Arsenal and said: “Everyone likes to work in an environment where everyone supports each other, the players and the manager. You will get more out of people with that working environment. I saw two separate halves last weekend. I saw a very impressive first half and in the second half I saw potentially areas where we can attack them. They have a lot of individual quality but we hope that collectively we can cause them problems.

“Obviously we have respect for Chelsea but the football and the application of my players has shown that they deserve that sort of game to measure themselves against the European champions.

“We are realistic, our chances are not very high. But we want to cause an upset and what I have learned working with this group of players is that they have surprised me many times and they are growing very fast. I would not be surprised if we give Chelsea a real go.

“It will be nice to see how the players cope with such an occasion.

“We are trying to keep our preparations as normal as possible but I am looking forward to seeing how we respond to it all.”

Rosler will be without left-back Jake Bidwell after he was sent off in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient.